It's a Creative World

Following the Paper Trail

I have something a little bit different today.

I want to shout out about a lady who had to be one of the most awesome scrappers ever.

I know some of you will know and admire her work already, but whether you already know her already or not, grab a cuppa, pull up a chair and prepare to drool.

The lady in question is Laura from Anchorage and her awesome blog, Following the Paper Trail, is HERE

Now you know I am a real mini book fan – well this lady has to be the mini book queen of the universe. Her work is so unbelievably good it is not true.

And she does classes as well!!

 Check out this masculine mini book that will take your breath away.

 

Now if you don’t think that is awesome then – well …. I just can’t believe you won’t.

This was the first album I saw of hers, pointed out by MaryAnne.

There are dozens of videos of hers on You Tube.

You need to watch them ALL. Seriously.

 

Check this one out AMAZING WEDDING BOOK    

I can’t believe how awesome it is.

 

And she has tutorials for how to make many of the things.

 I am so going to have a go at some of them – I hope this will have inspired you too.

Dolly x

Tree of Love

Hello Eleanor here again.

One of my favourite places to visit is Dannisdoodles. Danni Reid is a wonderfully inspirational woman, whose papercrafrt creations are simply delightful. When I need an idea for a card, Danni's blog is where I go looking, and so it was that I found myself drawn to a lovely card she made back in August.Hearts and stitching, what's not to love? Here's Danni's lovely dimensional card:

For my version, I used felt. I already had a ready made little felt bird, and so it was simply a matter of cutting out a tree trunk, and lots of green hearts for leaves in various sizes. I stitched the trunk first, and then added the hearts with 3 or 4 machine stitches, popped on the little birdie, and finally a little rub-on:

Do visit Danni, I know you'll find lots of amazing inspiration there.

Bye for now

x

 

SIMPLE THINGS SEPTEMBER - JOY

Hiya Claireliz here with my take on this months Simple Things Project - Joy. Joy to me means Happiness, all the good stuff that makes you smile & to quote Aristotle ...

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human exsistence"

So I knew I was adding another list to this mini book of mine, a list of things that make me happy...

 

Such as Kisses, cuddles, hot chocolate etc. I have finally decided (8 months into this project) that pockets on these pages is the way to go so I can add in any little bits of journaling or ephemera or anything else really. I have also continued to use the dictionary definitions. My little album is looking very chunky now & I have to say I'm really rather pleased with it.

So what brings you Joy? Its still not too late to join in with us if you wish & we would love to see what you come up with.

Thanks for stopping by & see you soon

Claireliz

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Hi all, Michelle here with my little bit of JOY!

This word immediately made me think of the joy I felt when I swam with the Dolphins in Mexico (oh yes my beloved Mexico again!) In fact I didn’t just swim with them but me and hubby became trainers for the day and got to spend 7 glorious hours with these beautiful, amazing and joyous creatures in a most beautiful eco park and lagoon. I have used one of my favourite pictures from the day and it just sums up the joyous feeling I had and will never forget. I wanted the photo to pop out of my project to echo the elation I felt and found the perfect way to do this with a push me pull me card.

 
 

They really are so simple to make, and when you discover the secret ingredient you’ll say ‘no way’ just like me (well maybe you will LOL) Cut a piece of card 29.5cm x 14cm then score it 3 times at 9.5cm which will leave a 1cm tab at one end. Also cut 2 more bits of card 13.5cm x 8.5cm for the push me pull me bits.

 
I then made my own word confetti using all the words I think describe Joy and that joyous feeling by changing the font and size and colour in a word document, one in a dark blue and one in a light blue From the dark blue word paper I cut the word Joy and chalked some colour over the letters, I haven’t chalked in ages, isn’t it funny how you forget techniques and then suddenly they pop up in your brain!

 
I also made my decor trim from the same paper using my Purple Cows freestyle mouse and decorative blade, creating a panel for the front of the card and decorating my push me pull me tabs.

 
Now for the secret ingredient! A strip of polythene (I used an old bag that held some stash) 30cm x 3cm wrapped around the end panel of the large strip (the end without the extra tab bit) yes I know it’s that simple! That’s the mechanism!!

 
Stick the push me pull me tabs on either end of the plastic, one on top, one behind

 
Fold the card up, glue the tab down, add a little ribbon to the end of the pull me piece and decorate the front! Done!!

I found the making of this project as JOYous as the memory I was recording, so simple but so effective and now every time I pull that tab I re live the feelings and thoughts of a very special day full to the top with absolute, pure JOY. What’s your most JOYful memory? I’m sure you’ll feel inspired to create something after this post from all the talented creative girls, why not share your project with us? we’re a nosey bunch :) Enjoy the rest of your visit to this JOYous blog and until soon Happy Crafting

Love

MJM x

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 Hi everyone - Dolly here with my floral page for joy.

I am loving sticking to flowers for this album, especially when words like joy tie in so well.

One of the things that brings me immense joy, all the time, is a love of nature.

Looking at a beautiful view, a simple flower, a tiny bird, the ocean near my home or the stream at the end of our garden always fills me with joy. The beauty of creation gladens me always. So it was a great word to do.

 

For this page I used a lovely kit by Susan's designs at PickleberryPop  as it blended so well with the photo I wanted to use.

The picture was a near perfect rose that ! took two weeks ago on a visit to Mottisfont Abbey which houses the National Collection of old English roses.

 
The beautiful downy look to the petals, the way the blush deepens towards the centre, just a beautiful rose

I used lots of layers and lots of blending on the page to give a soft and hopefully unified feel to the page.

 

The birds and the waves were by Tiramisu designs

 
and here is my completed joyous page which does fill me with joy as it recalls a special day, things I love and the beauty of the world around me which I try never to take for granted.

 
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Hi, Mandy here with another page for my SIMPLE THINGS fabric book.

This month I went with a Bible quote... "The JOY of the Lord is my strength". 

I used some of my favourite 'Kaffe Fassett' fabric which I'd been saving for something special (I only have one fat quarter in this design). 

 

As you can see it's a very busy background so I kept it simple with just the words.  I began by ironing some bright limey-yellow fabric onto some iron-on interfacing to stiffen it, then I drew around some large letters backwards onto the interfacing side...

 

I laid out the word JOY onto an 8" by 8" fabric page and decided on the placement.  For the smaller words I ironed some brightly coloured bias-binding that I had in my stash in half lengthways, and stamped the words with brown STAZON ink. 

 

At this point I thought the word JOY needed something extra so I stamped over the letters with a swirly stamp...

 

It took a while to sew the large letters because of all the turns, then I sewed the small words on with two lines of stitching.

 

The page is quilted.  I am wondering if I should have used the fabric the other way around, with the limey-yellow fabric as the background and the busy fabric for the letters J-O-Y but I quite like how colourful the page turned out. 

Does anyone else think "Where has 2010 gone?"  I can't believe the next page is October!

Bye,

Mandy

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Hi Debbie here with my page for this month.

I found a quote by Mother Theresa which I really loved and started by covering my paper with some acrylic paint dabbers.

I then stamped three flowers and filled in the petals with cosmic shimmer paints.

I used white water soluble crayons to lighten parts of the page.

I glued some sequins in each corner with pva glue, and went around the petals of the flower and the page with a fine marker.

As I have really started to enjoy art journalling I decided to handwrite the quote rather than print or use cut out letters/stickers. I stamped a few images with versamark and went over with perfect pearls.

I am glad I tried using my own handwriting and think I need to practice more with the layout and sizes of my words.

Debbie x

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Hello Eleanor here, with another 8 inch embroidered quilt square.

In my life I gain a huge amount of joy from music; I love classical music especially, and particularly love to play Haydn, Mozart, Bach and Beethoven on the piano, and I also love to sing, anything from classical arias to show songs, jazz to country, and sacred, as well as silly ditties.

Here's my cotton square, the words and keys are all embroidered with a single strand of embroidery silk, the black keys are felt. The flourishes are stamped to frame to whole square.

I really must start work on putting all my squares together, any advice appreciated, since I have never done this before...

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 Hi from Caz, with not only September's, but also July and August's pages. I have had horrid broadband issues which have meant my pages couldn't be added in time for the last two months' posts.

So to recap July - Achievement.

 

Not only did I record an achievement but I also managed to fulfil a goal for Project 2010.....using my watercolour pencils!

And that INSPIRED (Augusts word is Inspiration) me to use them again.

 

Please excuse the rubbish scan! The colours have gone a bit pear shaped :(

I keep telling myself I can draw, in the hope that I keep practising and one day I will really be able to draw ;)

And September - JOY.

Now this page does worry me a little! I said Joy to myself a few times and then got down to doing my page. When I was scanning it I wondered what on earth this page had to do with JOY.......

 

Evidently my JOY is chocolate! Oh well :D

Caz
xx

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Next month our word is MEMORY, and I'm sure there are many scrappers out there with something to show us for this one. Do get in touch!

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Alcohol Inks SPLATTER Backgrounds

Hi again it's me GlitteryKatie back with another fun way to use your alcolhol inks!!

 

I saw this technique in Tim Holtz's book and wanted to try it- he has a great tutorial on his website that explains the technique really clearly! Go HERE

You will need:

Glossy cardstock

Alcohol inks

Ink tool applicator and felt pads

Straw or air can

Covered worksurface (it can be messy)

Stamps

Black Ink Pad -Archival or Versafine Ink

First you need to drop a spot of alcohol ink onto your glossy cardstock- immediately hit it with a blast of air from your air can to spread the ink!

Now I used my Husbands air compressor just because it was there BUT if you don't have access to one nor an air can you can blow through a thin straw- you just need a stream of air to blow the ink around!  ;)

Add other spots of different coloured alcohol inks and splatter them with air until you have a pleasing pattern!

THEN you can stamp onto them and using them as funky backgrounds!

Make sure you use an OIL BASED ink pad to stamp with as some inks will not stamp over alcohol inks and some will cause the alcohol inks to dissolve!

I used Black Versafine ink or you could use Archival ink

First of all I used Madonna Woodcut Bombshell stamp to stamp on my alcohol ink background.

I wanted to make a shrine-like card so I used a Tim Holtz Texture Fade folder (Rays and retro Circles) to emboss some glossy cardstock then I applied alcohol inks all over with my ink tool.

Then added some bright coloured Primas and glitter beads for a Mardi Gras look!

Here I a strip of the alcohol ink background and stamped a Stampotique girl onto it. I used the Tim Holtz Texture Fades Folder again this time coloured with red and orange inks. I added some Rock Star stickers with Fragments glued over them for some dimension.

 

Hope you enjoyed this voyage into alcohol inks!

Love GlitteryKatie xXXXx

 

Washday Blues (or pinks, browns and yellow in this case)

Happy Thursday! Today I am here with something of a departure for me. Sewing. Not on paper. Nope. This time I've actually used fabric! 

For a long while (all year) I have needed a new peg bag. I've been using an empty biscuit tin which, frankly, wasn't really upto the job I was asking it to do. I had also, for a long while, had a set of three pretty cotton tea towels I bought from Home Bargains (something like £3 for three) with the express intention of creating something with them. So today was the day to gather myself together and get the thing made.

I'm not much good at sewing, following patterns and the like, so a foolproof design and instructions were a must. I did a bit of Googling and decided upon the instructions at this website for a really easy to make peg bag. 

And, just for the fun of it (and so you can see that I really am not good at sewing and not just saying that) here are the photos that show the simple steps involved.

Lay tea towel face up and turn over the top about 4" (or whatever depth required to accommodate your hanger).  The only wooden hangers I had were those with the trouser hanger bit on them, so I delved into one of the kid's wardrobes and found a plastic one with a narrower design. I also did without tailor's chalk (used a laundry pen) or the tape measure (I'm more of an 'ish' girl when it comes to measurements).

Mark the shape of the hanger for your sewing line.

 

Sew each edge of the folded section upto to the middle, leaving 1/4 inch gap unsewn at the middle for the hanger to be poked through later. (Remember, if you use your sewing machine a lot for sewing on paper, like I do, change to a new needle before starting.)

Fold up the bottom section of the tea towel so it overlaps the top section by about 1/2 inch. Sew up both edges just beyond the point where the top section is sewn on either side.

 

Cut away the excess fabric and create a notch for the hanger to go through (I used pinking shears as these help prevent fraying.

 

Turn inside out, add your hanger and fill with pegs. And hope for some more good drying days! Mine is here pictured with the other two tea towels that came in the set. Aren't they so pretty? I've have a bit of a trawl back through the posts here at It's a Creative World and bookmarked a couple of projects I may attempt next.

If you use a plainer fabric, you could always pretty it up by adding flowers, ribbons and buttons, but I thought this fabric was gorgeous enough without anything else added to it. They would also make really great gifts (especially for anyone setting up home) and craft fair items too.

xxx's

Suzanne

 

Pen and notes gift set

A few years ago I bought a number of wooden note and pen holders but until recently had no idea what to do with them.

Today I actually used them to make a gift set for my Mum's birthday this week (it's OK...she doesn't visit this blog LOL!).

 

i used the fabulous new 7Gypsies Conservatory 8" x 8" paper pack to cover both items and actually opened my bottle of Modge Podge for the first time!

As the paper has quite a "collagey" pattern I just used it applied straight to the wood but I did cut a few birds from one of the sheets of paper to add interest. I also added some alphabet stickers.

I used paper along the top edges of the holders as well before sealing the finished items with 3 coats of Modge Podge.

 

I just hope Mum likes them!!

Thanks for visiting IACW!

Jo xx

Rainbow Batik

Hi Lynne here

Some time ago I took a class at a local college on Batik.

 

My favourite technique was the rainbow effect,

Take a piece of calico and wet it.

Using a paint brush paint strips of each dye colour across the fabric.

Once it's dry ( you can speed it up by ironing it dry) add your pattern using wax, I used a printing block and then added dots using a tjanting.

Imerse the fabric in a dark dye, in this case I used navy blue.

Rinse until it runs clear.

Iron with brown paper on top until all the wax is removed.

You then have a beautiful piece of fabric to make into something. 

 

Thanks for looking Lynne x

Decorative Key/Change Bowl

Hi everyone :) Carmen here.

I thought I'd show you a project I did for my sister one Christmas. I'm thinking of doing something similar for a few people this year too.

I'll start off by saying that my sister is a huge Spiderman geek. I wanted to make her something that she definitely wouldn't already have.

So I bought a porcelain bowl  - just a cheap one from Wilkinson's, gathered some Spiderman comic cuttings - this took me a while sourcing the comics from eBay. I learned pretty quickly not to go to a comic shop and tell them I would be cutting up the comics!

Then just using PVA glue to start with I started applying the images. No undercoat or anything. About half way through I discovered the delights of Decopatch glue (thanks Debbie) and used that for the rest of the images but you really can't tell where I used the differing glues.

I finished off the bowl with a couple of coats of sealer. It was a huge success - my sister loved it :) I'm thinking on different themes this year. There's a nephew that loves World of Warcraft and a football mad friend too... what do you think?

Thanks for taking the time to stop by :)

Carmen

Scrap it BIG!

Hi all, Michelle here with my monthly contribution to this fabulous blog!

Sometimes when we scrap I think we get stuck with the same familiar photo sizes like 6’’ x 4’’ and 7’’ x 5’’. They’re easy to print and they fit nicely on a page but sometimes I like to mix it up and go BIG! Have you ever printed a photo out at A4 to use on a page and let the photo do the talking? It’s an interesting exercise to let the photo dominate and that’s what I did for this post.

  
The photo is of the lovely beach and ship inn at Saltburn, as the title suggests! My mum took it and it sure does make me home sick so I wanted the photo to do the talking for me and kept the rest of the page relatively simple.

 
I printed the photo off at A4 and made sure I ticked the borderless option in my print preferences so I could get the maximum size possible. You can see how wide it is on the 12 x 12. I trimmed about 1cm from the top of the photo just to make it ‘sit’ right on the page, in effect making it a longer picture rather than wider, and also buying me space for my embellishments so they would be in a good position and not look like they were falling off the page.

 
I picked out some 12 x 12 paper in a sandy beach colour as the base of my layout (Cosmo Cricket snorkel) and then collected together some contrasting papers to pick out the blues and beiges in the photo (Basic grey and Rose Moka) I cut the various papers with my trusty Purple cows freestyle mouse cutter and a decorative blade in wavy shapes to echo the waves of the sea and a sandy beach all at the same time.

 
I decided to position the large photo with an even thin margin round the top and sides. I felt the paper framed the photo well. I layered up the ‘waves’ overlapping them as I went, and I really like that they reach the edges of the base paper and are wider than the photo as I think it creates an optical illusion and makes it look like the photo is the full 12 x 12 width.

 
In the gap remaining at the bottom I added some wide vintage lace and a strip of blue ribbon to break up the line of the last bit of blue paper and then added some extra texture with some pom pom ribbon (my latest favourite embellishment!) I left the inner edge of the lace rough too to lend to the ‘washed up on the seashore’ feel

 
Then I filled the left hand side of the gap with my title alphas (We R Memory keeper’s chipboard alphas and Rose Moka tiny alphas) I made sure the chip alphas overlapped the last bit of blue paper, again to break up the line and also made sure it overlapped the lace to pull everything together.

 
And finally I added some shells to complete the seashore theme.

I really love the look of the BIG photo on this page, to me it invokes the memories I have of Saltburn and I can almost smell the sea!

Sometimes a photo just begs to be scrapped BIG like this one of my hubby

 
The photo printed at A4 and cut out. Made with Glitz Detour papers

 And this one of a fun day out with my sister and nieces

 
The Ferris wheel almost become the background paper alongside the Glitz Maya papers and then letting the small photos tell the story. (step by step instructions for this layout are on my blog here)

So why not have a go at scrapping BIG and letting your photos do the talking! I hope you feel inspired to have a play, as ever thanks for stopping by and until the simple things project post JOYfully comes around on the 18th, Happy Crafting

Love

MJM x

Super Simple Hybrid Scrapping....

Hello again,

this is Mandy here, hoping everyone had a fab Summer.

I am really drawn to the idea of 'hybrid' scrapping because I love to play with my photos in Photoshop Elements or on the website 'PICNIK' but I don't feel I could ever give up pretty patterned paper or glue by going totally digi.  I have been taking an online class called Learn Something New Everyday by Shimelle and have used this opportunity to try out some simple 'hybrid' scrapping.  I knew it had to be super simple and achievable because of making a page every day throughout September because if it was over complicated I knew I wouldn't keep it up for 30 days. 

With this in mind, I decided to make a variety of basic templates in PSE.  Every day I choose one of my templates, add the photos & journaling and print out the page.  Then I just mat the printed page onto different patterned paper and add ribbon and a date tag.  I could easily add other embellishments like buttons and probably would if I wasn't doing a page a day. 

Here's page one, September 1st...

 

The page was made with template 13 and can be downloaded below.  The template size is 6" x 8" and is a PSE layered template.

 

Download 6 x 8 template 13

As you can see I needed to write more journaling so just adjusted the box size.  If there's a day when I have loads to say I will use the biggest box on the template, with smaller photos.  On days with not many photos I plan to cover the un-used boxes with patterned paper. 

'Hybrid' scrapping is very diverse, this is my slant on simple & achievable hybrid scrapping.  There are loads more free templates here on my blog for anyone who wants them.

Thanks for visiting IACW,

Mandy